HELP what colleges to remove from list? CHANCE ME

Applying to College
1

<p>Hey everyone! This is my first time posting on this website. I'm currently a junior and I have a pretty big college list. I know I need to narrow my choices down, but I don't know which ones to eliminate. I know I have many super reaches or low matches, but I'm an optimistic person. </p>

<p>Estimated senior year gpa: 3.4 UW 4.4 W
October SAT scores: CR - 730 Math- 690 Writing - 750 Total: 2170
Class Rank: Top 30%</p>

<p>NOTE ABOUT GPA: I did really bad freshmen and sophomore year. (2.7, 2.9) I was going through some familial problems and was not motivated to study or do any work. However, I am trying my best now and I aim to get all A's this year and next year no matter how much effort I will need to put in. </p>

<p>---- By the way, if I got a D in regular Algebra 2 and Honors Chemistry, but I retook the classes online to get a higher grade and I received A's would colleges still view me negatively, or would they see that I tried to improve? Also, I have taken Spanish 1-4 and got C's as final grades in Spanish 1-3, but received an A in Spanish 4. I am currently learning Mandarin now and I am doing well in it. How would colleges see my Spanish and Mandarin classes? -------</p>

<p>AP classes:
APUSH (junior year)
APES (junior year)
AP English (junior year)
AP Biology (senior year)
AP Stat (senior year)
AP English (senior year)
AP Gov. & Pol. (senior year)
AP Psych (senior year)</p>

<p>The senior year AP classes listed above are classes I'm taking for sure next year. I want to try to take AP Macro and Micro Econ online, and possibly AP Geo or AP Euro, but I don't know if that will be too much. </p>

<p>Honors Classes:
English (9th and 10th)
Chem.
Bio.
Geometry
Civics & Econ.
World History
Pre-calc
Holocaust & Genocide
Strategic Marketing
Law & Justice
Spanish 3
Spanish 4</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
National Technical Honors Society
DECA (aiming to win this year at states!)
Science Olympiad (aiming to win!)
Started a club sophomore year, lasted only that year
Town teen council
Volunteer at senior center
I'm an Indian learning Mandarin
Over 150 volunteer hours
Teaching myself piano</p>

<p>----My mom is a single mother who juggles a lot of things. Thus, I haven't been able to participate in sports or many clubs afterschool that meet weekly. -------</p>

<p>I'm interested in doing something with business in college.</p>

<p>COLLEGE LIST:
UNC Chapel Hill (in-state)
Babson
Bryant
Bentley
Syracuse
NC State (in- state)
UNC Wilmington(in-state)
Tulane
App State (in-state)
Elon
American
Boston U.
Villanova
Carnegie Mellon
Wake Forest
Lehigh
Northeastern
NYU</p>

<p>Please give me your thoughts on these schools and if I have a chance of getting in to any of them and if there are any I should add onto the list. Also, I would appreciate any advice you could give me. THANK YOU SO MUCH for taking the time to read this. It really means a lot. :)</p>

2

<p>I would take off Carnegie Mellon from your list. Your GPA is probably too low for you to get in there, so I would definitely take it off if you needed to pay money. I would probably take off NYU because I doubt they will provide you with the financial aid you need, especially if you want to live somewhere as expensive as NYC.</p>

3

<p>I had a feeling Carnegie Mellon and NYU would be super reaches for me. Thanks for your input. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>I forgot to add a college on to my list. Does anyone know if Rochester Polytechnic Institute would be atleast a mid-reach for me? I know that they’re a school focusing on math and science, but I know they have a fairly good business school</p>

4

<p>If you need financial aid, try putting “financial aid estimator” and “net price calculator” in each school’s web page search box. Use the provided tools to get an idea of how affordable each school is likely to be. Eliminate those schools which will not be affordable.</p>

5

<p>Thanks! I will do that for sure! One thing I’m concerned about is that my mom is seen as making a lot of money as she only only supports one person(me). However, my mom and I don’t actually have that much money saved up because she only recently started making the amount of money she makes now. Would colleges look into that when determining financial aid or would they only look at the amount of aid the calculator determines you need?</p>

6

<p>I would not recommend taking any of those schools off your list.</p>

<p>CMU may be a little reachy, but there’s nothing wrong with applying to a reach or two. </p>

<p>If you wanted to throw in one application at a school that is even more selective than CMU, I wouldn’t discourage you.</p>

<p>Given that your weighted gpa is so much higher than your unweighted, I would assume that you took an extremely rigorous schedule. Which is a major factor for many schools.</p>

<p>Financial aid calculators take into account both income and other assets.</p>

7

<p>Thank you for your advice. (: I’ve had family friends who have gone to CMU and I’ve grown up hearing some amazing stories about that school. </p>

<p>I’m so glad to hear about the gpa factor. I have worried that my low gpa would deter colleges from even looking at the rest of my application. </p>

<p>BTW, does anyone know of any safeties, reaches, or matches I should consider or add onto my list?</p>

8

<p>If you have never taken any AP courses before, just make sure you know what you are getting into before filling your schedule with them. They are a LOT of work.</p>

9

<p>A thought --</p>

<p>I don’t know what the issues were Freshman year (and am not asking you to explain). However, it may be worth talking to your guidance counsellor about this. Depending on what they were, s/he may be able to write an explanation in the GC letter. (IMO, a GC explanation of a bad year is better than anything you could write).</p>

<p>Also, do some research, there are a number of schools that either do not consider or heavily discount Freshman Grades. I’m sorry, I don’t have a list to share with you.</p>

10

<p>@Alabo21 I’m currently taking three right now(APUSH is considered to be the hardest at my school), and I have a high A in all three. I will keep what you said in mind though. Thanks. :)</p>

<p>@Zephyr15 If my guidance counselor left in the middle of junior year should I explain what happened to my new guidance counselor? Would colleges take into consideration that I will have known the guidance counselor who will write my college recommendation for only about half a year when they read the recommendation?</p>

11

<p>I think your college list is very solid, seems like a good mix of targets and reaches. Since this is for next year, keep all the colleges you like in mind. Keep looking, but be ready to trim some you don’t feel as excited about a year from now. For example, if you’re just not into Elon come September next year, take it off. The junior year will change you a lot, that’s all I can say. </p>

<p>(You know) I’m applying to Duke ED and before it was just one of my bottom of the list choices, so keep an open mind, work your butt off this year, and make the hard cuts in the summer. Good luck!</p>

12

<p>@liveandlearn</p>

<p>I think it’s worth talking to the new Guidance Counselor. Colleges have dealt with the situation where there is a new GC before. The fact that the new GC is talking about your entire HS record should not be a problem.</p>

13

<p>@SeaHawks506 Thank you for your encouraging words and advice! Good luck with Duke! :)</p>

<p>@zephyr15 Ok! I will do that as soon as I can.</p>

14

<p>Northeastern is a little pricy too, but other than that NYU and CM, I think you have a legitimate chance of getting into all of those. One of my best friend goes to Lehigh and you have much better stats than she did.</p>

15

<p>To explain your GPA and course re-takes, you might want to write your essays about the problems and how they impacted your life? Maybe use the essay as an opportunity to explain those discrepancies. </p>

<p>You definitely got your act together though, wow!</p>

<p>CMU is a bit of a reach, but definitely plausible. I wouldn’t say it’s a “super reach” at all, I live near it and know kids with worse stats that yours who’ve gotten in. If you want to go ahead and consider an even more prestigious school, I wouldn’t dismiss the idea. </p>

<p>All in all, it seems like a pretty solid preliminary list. I would talk to your parents and guidance counselors, and start going on visits. If you don’t like the school in person, it’s way too pricey, etc, then you can remove it from the list. Great start, now you just need to pare it down a bit :)</p>

16

<p>Sorry for not replying earlier, I just checked this thread and saw your responses!</p>

<p>@nybing Thank you for your input! Yeah, those schools are hard to get into, and my financial need won’t make it easier for me to get into them. I know Lehigh is a great school and I would be incredibly happy if I got the opportunity to go there for college.</p>

<p>@Bookworm934 I’ve heard that writing your essays about any problems or to explain something looks bad and makes it seem like you’re whining. I don’t know for sure though. Should I maybe include an “extra” essay when submitting my college application explaining that, or is that not smart? </p>

<p>I absolutley love CMU, it’s such an amazing school! A lot of people(in person) that I’ve talked to about schools such as CMU, NYU, Chapel Hill(I’m in-state), Tulane, Wake Forest, Northeastern, and the other nationally notable schools on my list have just told me that with my stats there is no possible way I’d get into any of them. However, I’ve remained hopeful and I will continue to do my best everyday. </p>

<p>I’m trying to convince my mom to let me visit some colleges, at least the ones that are in-state for me. I also have family that lives in New York and my mom and I are planning to visit them during spring break, so I can hopefully visit the colleges near them. </p>

<p>Thank you nybing and Bookworm934 for taking time to read my thread and for your input! :)</p>

17

<p>Does anyone know anything about some colleges abroad such as in England or Scotland? With my stats, should I apply to any of them? The ones I’m aware of are: St. Andrews(Scotland), University of Edinburgh(Scotland), Imperial College of London, and Kings College(England). Would I need to be full pay to be accepted into any of these colleges? I originally never looked at colleges not in the United States, but someone mentioned to me that it was worth looking at colleges abroad.</p>

18

<p>bump? anyone? :)</p>